Bitter - party of one hundred million...

So, the Wall Street Journal today had an article...

It seems that the red hot new Pontiac model - the G8 - has had but 1915 buyers in August. That's fewer than one sold per franchised dealer.

The article goes on to discuss how a huge swath of GM's models sell next to nothing. The entire Buick lineup sells fewer cars in the US now than does Mitsubishi, if you don't take fleet sales into account.

Very few of these cars are profitable at these low volumes.

The Chevrolet Malibu, which was a car that used to sell more than a million units a year through the 1980s, struggles to reach the numbers achieved by the Impala, a TRIM of a model that used to sell more than a million units a year. The Impala, which sells about 30,000 units a month for Chevrolet, is artificially pumped by its heavy rental and corporate fleet purchases.

So, what went wrong? There are still a few die-hard American iron buyers in my circle; me, Larry, Jeffrey and Steven, Kent .. but that's IT. Substantially anyone else I know first considers the Japanese brands, the Germans or Hyundai. American brands are dead last.

If I reflect back on when I was first experiencing adulthood, GM had just downsized the full sized and "A" bodies - Malibu, Grand Prix, Regal, Monte Carlo, Cutlass. The fall of 1979 was filled with gorgeous examples of these cars, and the most amazing of them was the 1979 Regal. I remember a black one, with a turbocharged 3.8L V6, gleaming chrome, t-tops, full console, and gorgeous gold velour seats.

How about this? My Firefox spell checker doesn't recognize the word "velour."

I saw this car at the local Buick dealer - they occupied the entire corner pad of the second largest mall in town - their lot had at least 150 brand new cars. The Regal was magnificent; it looked every bit as classy as the Riviera that was decked out nearly the same way, but there was no way I could afford a Riviera. The Regal, though. Maybe not the Turbocharged, maybe not the t-tops .. but I could see myself in something that looked that good.

Back then, in a world without the Internet, without text messaging and without endless, mindless video distractions, my best friend and I haunted the car lots at night, after we'd left all our normal friends off at home to hit the hay.

We'd walk the unsecured lots looking at rows of Eldorados, touching the exquisite knurled stainless roller knob that controlled the then very new "interval" wipers on a Riviera, marveling that Lincoln could get a metallic green finish to leather that matched the exterior paint and the opera vinyl roof. We'd go out in misty, fall weather - the new models always came out around my birthday the first weekend in October.

Now, you can hardly get me worked up about going to an auto show.

I know that David was lost to American brands after his '79 Regal Turbo ate its piston heads, his '88 Dakota and his '88 Aerostar also were terminal cases. He went Japanese and hasn't looked back in twenty years. He's a car nut, as I have always been. He's recently been interested in the new Malibu, which is a looker. I keep looking at it and thinking 'wow, that is a GREAT looking car'.

Back when you could stick a screwdriver between interior panels of a Regal, standards were different. We didn't expect a car to do 0-60 in 7 seconds. We expected it to look great. We expected so much less, but expected far more of how it looked.

I guess my point of that we could look at a car like that Regal, which was loaded like a Riviera. It looked JUST as good as did that Riviera. We could buy one that gave us the feeling of the richer, smarter looking car, and by cutting back on equipment, we could convince ourselves that we were driving the nicest wheels.

In the spring of 1980, I was about to graduate from college, and there was still the occasional patch of snow that had been a big pile from street plows. The cherry blossoms were out, and I was still wearing a heavy jacket and gloves. It was sunny, and everything smelled wet and fertile. I drove by DeNooyer Chevrolet, and up on a stand was a black 1979 Camaro Berlinetta.

Now, n this time, I could look at a '79 Camaro, and see that it was a hack job on a Nova chassis, had a trunk the size of an Altoids box, and had a 305 V8 that made a whopping 110 horsepower. Back then, the Camaro was something. Chevy sold hundreds of thousands of Camaros every year.

This one was something ELSE. Black, with bright red stripes that accented the wheel wells, the window reveal moldings, the rocker panels, the trunk lid edge. Alloy wheels in a honeycomb pattern, with white walls (okay, it was a different time. Remember that the spell checker doesn't remember "velour".)

Red vinyl interior, it had most of the optional equipment that one would now consider obligatory on the lowest Hyundai minicompact. It had a rear defroster. A stereo AM/FM radio with two rear and one front speaker. Hand crank windows and manual locks.

Dual exhausts. Well, dual exhaust TIPS. It was a single exhaust from the 305 back to the muffler, and then it split into two pipes that came out the back.

It stood there, on the metal stand, shoulders above the other cars on the lot. They had had this beast for months; the recession of 1979 was severe. Pink cherry blossoms framed the car. I instantly fell in love.

I've been hit by love at first sight only a few times in my life. Seeing that Camaro there. The evening I was introduced to Jackie (my chow chow) was another.

My dad and I had bought several cars from a guy - I wish I could remember his name; I can see his face in my mind. I went inside and talked to him. He let me take the car out for a drive; he just let me have the car.

I was wearing soft, black leather gloves that day. It started to mist. I drove the car all the way out to Mattawan, and rang the bell at Kevin's house. The car sat, burbling and idling in their wet driveway, the slight rain beading up on the mirror black paint. Kevin thought it was gorgeous.

On the way back, I stopped at the office where Mary Ann worked. She thought it was beautiful as well, but she asked if I thought I could pay for it.

I'd been paying on my 1978 Monte Carlo for 22 months; I had put 55,000 miles on that car. Two sets of brakes. I didn't care a whit for what it cost, only whether the monthly payment was affordable to me. I drove the car back to DeNooyer - it was the first time that I had ever been allowed to test drive a car without a salesman in the car or an adult, other than just around the block.

I don't even remember negotiating.

I didn't know he called my dad and got him to co-sign for me.

I sold my Monte to my friend Deb, and bought the Camaro. I felt so SEXY driving that car; dignified but sporty; elegant and athletic.

Back then, Camaro came in four trim levels - there was the base model, which looked kind of like a granny's Malibu, with zippy sheet metal, there was the Rally Sport, which had comb over two tone paints and stripes, and was a poor man's Z28, there was the pavement ripping (if you can call 150 horsepower "ripping") Z28 and the Berlinetta, which that year replaced the LT model of earlier years.

Each one of these trim levels was targeted toward a different customer.

The Berlinetta and the Z28 were the only two that had upgraded interior trim and fabric. The Berlinetta was "classy" and the Z28 was the bar bully.

I was that car. That car was me.

The next spring, I put a Clarion biamplified stereo into the car - 6x9 rear deck speakers, and separate tweeter/mids in the doors. It rocked. When I got to Houston, I upgraded to a Sony system, and that REALLY rocked.

One afternoon, my law school friend Tracey and I were driving up Voss Road, and stopped next to a car load of high school kids, who were blaring their music.

Clearly, they didn't understand the concepts of auto sound fidelity. Tracey barely glanced in my direction and said "Hit it." I cranked that knob on the Sony receiver, and there was a thermonuclear blast of Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" album that ripped through those kid's choice of music like a chainsaw through balsa.

I drove that car everywhere in Houston, working as a singing telegram messenger. In that mail slot of a trunk, I not only carried four costumes, paper hats, party horns, balloons, and blank telegrams, but also tools and other necessities. I used to work with this awesome male stripper, Mark, who one day was about to choke with glee because I had run out of gas. He was cawing "I can't WAIT to tell everyone that the GREAT Douglas has run out of gas." His facial expression collapsed when I opened the trunk and pulled out my gas can and said "take me to the gas station."

I had every confidence in the world, driving that car.

The last winter I lived in Michigan, I never resented that car when I had to chip the ice and snow off of the windshield, and when I had to start it and let it warm up for fifteen minutes before I could drive it off. In the blistering summers of Houston, I never resented that the car was a furnace when I opened the door.

Even after driving it for four years, I still felt like a sophisticate pulling up in front of a very tony nightclub. Valets still treated it with respect.

I put 119,000 miles on that car. When I graduated law school, I had read a review of the brand new Thunderbird TurboCoupe - the first paragraph said that the car made the reviewer want to sing "Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine..."

I decided I had to have one. I traded the Berlinetta in at Chuck Miller Ford, and when they gave me my trade in bid, I was stupified that it was so high. We wrote everything up, and they came in to me with the paperwork including the odometer certification. They had thought the car had 19,000 miles.

I gave that Berlinetta away to buy a car that didn't drive as well, didn't have the horsepower, and didn't sound as sexy.

Since the Berlinetta, I've had seven cars, all American iron. Three Pontiacs, three Fords, and, the car I never thought I could have, a Riviera. Of all of those, only the Riviera was what I could call a "good" car. The 1990 Grand Am SE HO Quad 4 (that was what it was called, really) was a good car until I got about 90,00 miles on it, then it just started to fall apart.

The Riviera was bullet-proof and gorgeous, right up until 98,000 miles. I couldn't keep the rear suspension working, and the driver seat frame kept breaking. One December morning, Bram backed into it, and that was all it took for me to drive it to CarMax and buy a 2005 Bonneville GXP, my first V8 powered car since the Berlinetta.

The GXP has been an outstanding car, as far as being a car goes. It's not perfect, but it looks like sex, it goes like stink, and the exhaust sounds delicious. Strange how the monthly payments aren't anything like my $178/month on the Berlinetta, though. Of course, I was only taking home about $130 a week in 1979.

I am very happy with the GXP, but it doesn't make me .. um.. the way that Dorothy Boyd did for Jerry McGuire. The way that the Berlinetta did.

The W12 silver Phaeton four seat that I drove two years ago would have completed me in the way the Berlinetta did. It's funny that there was so much derision about the Phaeton when I was so hooked on them.

What have I lost, that none of the designs today bring me to a place where it changes my confidence and elevates my mood each and every day? What has the industry lost? It's not me; yes, in three weeks, I'll be a half century old; in my lifetime, I've seen a lot of refinements, but they filtered out the excitement.

"We Build Excitement." Pontiac, in the 1970s.

I think that the Phaeton W12 would have inspired me back in 1979; impossible as that would have been to happen. A young man who stayed up until 3 am to look at Mark V, Riviera, Grand Prix, Cordoba would have found the detail exquisite and the performance thrilling.

And the exhaust note the most compelling of any.

I assert that it isn't me who's changed. I can still be moved to a higher level of existence by the creation of automobile engineers and designers.

I just don't know what it is that is now gone. Everyone used to have it, and millions of cars were sold because of it. Now, they're all toaster ovens, and we're mostly concerned about which one uses the least power and is the easiest to clean up.

You're going to vote for the liars? Really?

Let me be more clear - you're going to consciously choose someone who lies AND steals your tax dollars?

You get what you deserve, then. I hope you've enjoyed the doubling of your national debt on Sunday. There will be more of it.

Michael Moore's six ways Obama can lose this election:

1. Keep saying nice things about McCain.
2. Pick a running mate who is a conservative white guy or a general or a Republican.
3. Keep writing speeches for Obama that make him sound like a hawk.
4. Forget that this was a historic year for women.
5. Show up to a gunfight with a peashooter.
6. Denounce me!

If you're counting, Obama's five for six so far.

From his Rolling Stone column

will people ever learn?

A few keystrokes, a little research and voila!

Your perfidy is revealed to the world. Well, if you watch the Daily Show, anyway.

will people ever learn?

A few keystrokes, a little research and voila!

Your perfidy is revealed to the world. Well, if you watch the Daily Show, anyway.

Ghost stories

Today, I thought I'd start off our Sunday discussion talking about the afterlife - what people's concepts about it were, and whether they felt that it was possible to communicate with the departed - if they existed, and how that could be.

It was pretty animated.

I've had quite a few ghost stories in my life; almost wrote a book about one of them.

A day off - so it seems. I need to shower and head off.

BRILLIANT!

Just some thoughts

So, having had David here all weekend was pretty darned fun. While he worked this weekend, I ran around with Robert or did the church thing.

Yesterday, Robert and I attended the Hyundai Genesis "Discover Genesis" tour here in Houston. It was .. lame. I know that it was raining cats and dogs, and the thunder had them turn over the power inverters, so we couldn't demo the stereo, or other electrically powered features of the cars. The cars (I drove both the V6 and the V8) were really quite lovely. Beautifully put together. The demo was crap. Either Hyundai went dirt cheap on this, which was a huge mistake, or they're not being well represented by their contractor. The cars were driven around a closed parking lot track that lasted just over two minutes. The babysitter chattered on the entire time - uh, shut up?

Robert loved the car, hated the presentation, and really was not impressed with the people who were there to see it.

Before going to the Discover Genesis tour, we stopped at the Houston home of DeLorean Motor Cars, which was closed, but was viewable through the open bay doors and through the showroom window. The owner was getting into his Nissan Titan pickup, and we chatted him up a minute.

After the Genesis was Discovered, we were walking out to the car and Robert said "let's go watch airplanes." Well, twist my arm, Buck.

We drove around the perimeter of the airport, and stumbled across a non-parking area at the very foot of one of the primary runways. We stood there about an hour, as two strong thunderstorm systems converged on the airport, and saw them (the airport ops people) shooting arrivals in between the storms. At one point, as we watched a British Airways 777 coming in on final, the wind shifted from north to south and inceased. We watched him reverse his crab and he landed that beast at about 15 degrees off center. It was so cool.

Right after that, a Continental 737-800 came in - engines screaming on high power, all the flaps and slats thrown out, gear down, condensation rat tails pouring off of the deployed flap edges. He was crabbed pretty hard, also. Seconds after he roared five hundred feet over our heads, we heard the wildest whiffling noises overhead. I think it was the following vortices from his passage that we were hearing.

David and I had Star Pizza last night, which was great. This morning, off to church at the normal time, and got home around 4:00 p.m. Dinner at Mission Burrito, followed by some quality floating time in the pool. Now, it's nearly midnight and time for me to get some sleep. Hopefully, I'll make it until sunrise before my brain awakens me with detailed plans for worrying and decision making.

What my friend said, I cannot improve upon

"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen is to go about repeating the very phrases which our fathers used in the struggle for Independence."
---Historian Charles A. Beard

And, in counterpoint -



So, does this mean that the US isn't a nation? Or that Iraq wasn't a nation? Or that our invasion of Iraq was somehow actually done before 12/31/1999?

The 23rd Qualm

(Written by a retired Methodist minister.)

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace
for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution
and war,
I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control,
they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the
presence of thy religion.
Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me
all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Just clean up your thinking!

Thursday night

Okay, so I'm loving the new office set up. I love this big, practical furniture. It rocks! I love looking out at the pool through the French doors. Thanks Robert and Dina for helping me!!

Deep Thought™

by digby


Travelling by airplane in the US is nothing more than mass training of Americans to the requirements of the coming police state. The whole point is to make you learn to acquiesce without question, en masse, to completely absurd directives by dull functionaries wearing uniforms.



™Atrios

For those who have asked why not, I offer:

Saturday finishes

Well, this morning I was up at 5:50, so that I could take Miss Jackie outside, make coffee and start making pancakes for RWB, who had to be at work early early. Jackie started clicking around on the wood floors which was a very effective alarm clock for the guest room downstairs - returned about 20 phone calls from prospective renters, hauled out the old AT&T 964 phone, dusted it (really) and set it up to receive phone calls from said prospective renters - thus cutting back on my phone call volume.

Then, drove down to the church to meet with Jean and put up some white boards. From there, back to Manderlay to re-letter the sign with the home phone number and meet people who wanted to walk through. Think I found someone who will rent the place; I expect to hear from them Monday or Tuesday.

A friend tonight linked me to a NYT article that describes a company's effort to assist people who are in trouble with their mortgages that my dad was telling me about last week. Looked them up on the web, and sent them an email, which bounced back.

Crazy.

Got home around 5:30, watched "Keillers Park" on DVD. It was good-ish; but nothing on Weeds - the DVD for Season Three of which should be arriving on Monday.

I believe that RWB is giving me a desktop computer, which will replace both this lappy (that is REALLY tired and weary) and the old desktop computer, which is equally weary.

And, my Treo kicked the bucket today. Well, I needed to go into the Sprint store anyway.

Leaving on vacation in twelve days. Yeep!

Right after I get the subscription bill, he validates my paying for it AGAIN

By Bill in Portland Maine
on Cheers and Jeers

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Late Night Snark...with 100% Humidity

"President Bush is now in Japan for the big G-8 summit, which is going on right now. The G-8 Summit is where the world's top economies get together. The bad news: we are no longer one of them. I wouldn't say the U.S. economy is doing bad, but you know how Bush got to Japan? Southwest."
---Jay Leno
-
"On Fox News, Jesse Jackson was caught saying he wants to cut Barack Obama’s nuts off. This marks the nicest thing ever said about Barack Obama on Fox News."
---Conan O'Brien
-
"In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court overturned Washington, DC's ban on handguns! Finally, the residents of Washington, DC have the right to defend themselves---from each other, one assumes. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said, 'It is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.' He is right. Killing the Constitution is the president's job. The court's job is to overturn elections."
---Stephen Colbert
-
"Well, you know, Barack Obama, he's started a fashion craze in Italy. Italian designers have taken his look, and they're turning it into fashion. It's an amazing thing. But don't sell John McCain short. He's also influencing fashion. He has popularized the 'something on your chin' look."
---David Letterman
-

And the headline of the week: Bush addresses the Italian prime minister in Spanish: "Amigo! Amigo!"

Hey, America! When you're thinking about which candidate to vote for in November, remember: Republicans invented the punch clock, Democrats invented the weekend. Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

One of the rarest

The most appropriate

From the New Yorker

Dropping the Helmsman

Far too late for it to do anybody any good, Jesse Helms has died. He has done so on Independence Day, which, since he was born too late to own slaves and in too liberal an age to allow him to outlaw sedition, will forever be his only resemblance to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

It is rude to speak ill of the dead. Luckily, I did so ahead of time.

His earlier speaking ill of the not yet dead:



When a "colorful" celebrity has achieved some sort of sustained and nominally respectable worldly accomplishment (record sales, business success, public office), and has been around long enough to acquire the appealing vulnerability of old age, and has not been convicted of a capital crime, there's a powerful tendency to go all warm and fuzzy on him. So it is at the moment for Jesse Helms, the senior senator from North Carolina. With his announcement, last Wednesday, that he will not seek a sixth term next year, Helms became a certified legend—the feisty (but always courteous) conservative icon, the plainspoken Tarheel who never feared to be politically incorrect, the paragon of traditional values who always let you know where he stood and is destined to be remembered, as President Bush put it, as "a tireless defender of our nation's freedom and a champion of democracy abroad."

The strangest tribute came from Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and normally a levelheaded (if chronically puckish) observer. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mead described Helms as "one of a handful of Southern statesmen who ensured the triumph of the civil rights revolution"—and not, as you might suppose, by provoking disgust and indignation among the fair-minded with the crude racism that was his stock-in-trade (along with an "anti-Communism" that treated liberal reform and Soviet tyranny as indistinguishable). According to Mead, the decisive contribution of Jesse Helms was that "once the civil rights legislation of the 1960s was enacted"—over Helms's unremitting and demagogic opposition, by the way—"he accepted the laws and obeyed them." Also, in edifying contrast to his counterparts of a century earlier, he refrained from "being directly and openly involved in the murder of black political leaders."

Talk about lowering the bar! But Helms never bothered with the soft bigotry of low expectations. He has always preferred the hard stuff, undiluted by the branch water of euphemism. Many of the Helms retrospectives of recent days have dated his entry into serious politics to 1960, when, after having spent most of his thirties as a banking lobbyist, he began delivering nightly five-minute commentaries on a Raleigh television station and on something called the Tobacco Radio Network—the job that propelled him into the Senate, twelve years later. But as far back as 1950, Helms, then twenty-eight, helped run what the Duke University historian William H. Chafe has called "the bitterest, ugliest, most smear-ridden campaign of modern times," the race to unseat Frank P. Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina and probably the most distinguished North Carolinian ever to sit in the United States Senate. "The Graham campaign is generally viewed as the most pivotal in modern southern history since it set the precedent for the race-baiting and red-baiting tactics that were later employed so widely by politicians like Orval Faubus, George Wallace, and Jesse Helms," Chafe has written. "Helms, of course, helped invent these tactics." Over the succeeding half century, Helms changed but little. His own campaigns have invariably been powered by appeals to prejudice, racial and otherwise. In recent years the focus of his bigotry has shifted increasingly toward gays and lesbians. But his disdain for people of color (exemplified by his "humorous" habit, in private, of referring to any black person as "Fred") continues to find ways of expressing itself. He is the Senate's most reliable opponent of any measure aimed at securing the rights or improving the conditions of African-Americans. In 1994, when Nelson Mandela visited the Capitol, Helms ostentatiously turned his back on him.

* from the issue
* cartoon bank
* e-mail this

To be fair, the snub of the South African President probably had less to do with race per se than with foreign policy, the field in which Helms, who since 1986 has been either the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or its ranking Republican, has done his worst mischief. His vaunted anti-Communism was never based upon a principled belief in democracy. His support of the apartheid regime was of a piece with his enthusiasm for any dictatorship, no matter how brutal, that could plausibly be described as right wing. (He even supported the Argentine junta in the Falklands war with Britain.) He has crippled America's diplomatic corps, systematically starving the State Department of funds and capriciously blocking the confirmation of highly qualified ambassadorial nominees. But it is in his unrelenting hostility to international institutions that he has done his greatest and probably most lasting damage.

The gauzy story line of the past week requires Helms to have "mellowed," the main piece of evidence being his agreement, in 1999, to allow payment of some nine hundred million dollars of the $1.3 billion in back dues the United States then owed the United Nations. Never mind that it was he who had abused the rules of the Senate to hold up the payments in the first place, or that the United States was on the verge of being deeply embarrassed by losing its right to vote in the General Assembly. The real significance of the episode is that what was supposed to be legally binding has now been certified as volitional. A new "principle"—that the solemn obligations of the United States are subject to abrogation without notice by congressional ideologues—has become ever more entrenched. America's U.N. bill, by the way, remains unpaid; it now amounts to $2.3 billion, a record, thanks to the machinations of such mini-Helmses as Tom DeLay, the House majority whip. Helms's heirs now populate the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, too: the national-security apparatus of the Bush Administration is heavily salted with his former assistants. Little wonder that the Administration adds almost weekly to the long list of useful international treaties it proposes to reject, abrogate, or simply scrap. The retirement of Jesse Helms has been hailed (and mourned) as "the end of an era." If only that were true.

My very favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon (and my second favorite)

And one of the best wartime ones -



And the one that gives me my identity:

Bill Moyers, peaceful afternoons and distraction

A day alone at the house. I've listened to two of Keith Olbermann's recent broadcasts, and I've now listened to four of Bill Moyers' broadcasts - only another two to go to be fully listened up.

I was putting together bread dough, which I've done hundreds of times over the last 25+ years - and I was listening to the Bill Moyers' broadcast in which he puts on Phil Donahue and the focus of his movie "Body of War," and I was so distracted that I prepared the entire raw dough loaf WITHOUT putting the yeast into it. Never have done that before. What was it that drew my attention so far away?

I'm not sure whether listening to this broadcast does ME any good. I know this information; I've heard about it as it was coming on for years. It's upsetting at a deep level based on my personal world view. "Liberty produces wealth, and wealth squelches liberty."

I was going to wash and wax the car today; the thundershowers interfered with that. Hmph.

Had a terrific conversation with Dina last night about working together more closely in the future. Lots of things in reflection today.

I STILL love this guy..

Bill from Portland Maine writes in today's Cheers and Jeers

Dear Bill: Is there a method to winning a political argument online? S.L., South Bend

Dear S.L.: Try this:

You always You never You should You must You shouldn't You mustn't. Why can't you Why don’t you Why aren't you Why didn’t you How could you? You suck You blow You lie You have no idea. You ignoramus You jerk You Ass You partisan hack. You're lying You're cheating You're distorting You're asking for it. You're out of your mind You’re out of your league You’re out of your tree You're out of your gourd. You’re off your rocker You're off your meds You're off the reservation. You're wrong You're stupid You're ignorant You're mental You're full of shit. You're an automaton You're a bomb-thrower You’re a water carrier You're a Kool Aid drinker You're a hack You're a loser You're a prick. You've got blinders on You've got no sense You've got spittle on your chin You've got your head up your ass. You disgust me You repulse me You disappoint me You make me want to puke. You’re talking in circles You're talking in riddles You’re talking in gibberish You're talking trash You're talking like a two year old. You can go to hell You can kiss my ass You can leave You can take your shit to another blog. I'm warning you I'm telling you I'm advising you I'm this close to troll-rating you. I'm sick of your crap I'm sick of your attitude I'm sick of your comments I'm sick of your emails I'm sick of your purity. Mine's better, smarter, faster, more organized, more effective and more experienced than yours, whatever it is. I say so I know so I was there I heard it from the horse's mouth I saw it on the internet I found it on Wikipedia I have a friend who took a class I got it from Fox News I read a press release from my congressman. Knock it off Cut it out Get a clue Do your homework. Clearly you don’t understand Clearly you don’t listen Clearly you don’t get it Clearly you haven’t tried it Clearly you weren't old enough at the time Clearly you're out of touch Clearly you're running around with the wrong crowd Clearly you want us to lose. One more word One more peep One more comment One more outburst One more syllable and you'll regret it. Don’t give me that attitude Don’t play that card Don’t change the subject Don't act so surprised Don’t be so stupid. Go to hell Go pound sand Go back to your mommy Go screw yourself Go to Little Green Footballs. I'm sick of you I loathe you I hope you get what's coming to you, crybaby.

And then add: "With all due respect." Bingo---you win.

So true, so true

AlterNet publishes the "Bottom 10" list for Geo 43

The 10 most awesomely bad moments of the Bush presidency

It's worth reading, not just as a refresher, but as proof that even the ideologues that these folks are pursuing think that it's all screwed up.

Unintended consequences

What if medical advances, considered to be without flaw, actually had consequences that are uncomfortable and undesirable?

What if the "sub-prime meltdown" was just the beginning?

What if our mess in Iraq had already happened once before, and we, who were unfamiliar with history, were condemned to repeat it?

What if you could avoid paying nearly any credit card or bank fees just by asking nicely?

What if Walnut Bend is my Manderlay?

Without remarks

George Carlin passes, nation mourns. Constitution is equally dead, no one notices.

I was truly shocked when I heard George Carlin had died. Rendered speechless for two or three seconds.

Why isn't it at all a surprise that a.) The constitution of this country is equally dead, or that b.) Barack Obama is fine with that?

Whoever wins in November, we're going to get four more years of the same - platitudes, rising prices, falling wages and government run by and for corporations with the best paid lobbyists.

At least in California, sensibility seems to be reigning to a minor degree.

What do you know about that?

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

For quotes, always check out quotations page.

And, once you've voted, you'll need this training

Okay, they have a few good points

I love Matt Taibbi

And sometimes he writes things that make my jaw hang slack:

McCain's transformation is so complete that at a recent town-hall meeting in Nashville, when asked to name an author who inspired him, the candidate -- who once described televangelists of the Jerry Falwell genus as "agents of intolerance" -- put none other than Joel Osteen at the top of his list. "He's inspirational," McCain said.

Standing at the meeting, I didn't write Osteen's name down in my notebook -- apparently because my brain refused on some level to accept that McCain had actually said it. Of all the vile, fake, lying-ass, money-grubbing shyster scumbags on the face of this planet, there is perhaps none more loathsome than Osteen, a human haircut with plastic baseball-size teeth who has made a fortune selling the appalling only-in-America idea that terrestrial greed is actually a form of Christian devotion. "God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us," Osteen once wrote. This is the revolting, snake-oil-selling dickhead that John McCain actually chose to pimp as number one on his list of inspirational authors. So much for "go, sell everything you have and give to the poor," and all that other hippie crap from the New Testament.

End to end and edge to edge

Robert and I cooked up this little project a few weeks ago, and only tonight worked on the math. Check us and see if we're right.

So, this required a little research. (edit - and, fortunately, I know a Canadian who helped me with the metric conversion error)

Iraq is 438,317 km² or 438,317,000,000 square centimeters (edited to correctly reflect cubic centimeter calculation)

A dollar bill is 156 mm by 66 mm by .11 mm, or 102.96 square centimeters (edited from 1029.6 centimeters, which I thought looked pretty big...)

We've spent $3,000,000,000 on Iraq according to the Washington Post.

If each of those dollars were laid flat across the land surface of Iraq, they would cover 3,088,800,000,000 square centimeters.

3,088,800,000,000 centimeters divided by 438,317,000,000 centimeters is .7046954601. (edited to correctly show relationship between smaller dollar size and larger Iraq size)

If we'd have just taken the cash, and laid it all end to end and edge to edge, we'd almost have covered the surface area of Iraq with dollar bills. (edited to allow for corrected math.)

Taken another way, the WaPo estimate is considered by many to be low, and is several months old. Pretty soon, we could conceptually have covered the entire country with dollar bills.

Thanks to Wikipedia for providing the measurements of Iraq and the US Dollar, and to Google for its most helpful up and down conversion function, and Excel for being able to take numbers over 100,000,000.

And, thanks to my favorite Canuckistanian, Eric in Vancouver, who provided me with this very helpful conversion:

Ya know D,

After going to bed, I thought of an easier way to calculate this without losing track of erroneous zeroes and to help you with imperial-vs.-metric measurements:

Let's start with 1 square metre. A metre is approximately the size of a yard (39" or so). A metre is 100 cm, so a SQUARE metre (approximate the size of a square yard) is is 100cm x 100cm or 10,000 square (NOT cubic) cm.

A square cm (a little under a half inch squared ) is about the size of a sugar cube.

By your measurements, it would take 103 to cover a dollar bill. Let's round it down slightly to 100, and add the 3% later.

A km (1.6 miles) is by definition 1,000 metres. So a square km is 1,000 x 1,000 metres or 1 million square metres.

So to cover a square km with dollar bills we need 100 (to cover a square metre) X 1 million, or 100 million of 'em.

10 (TEN) square km would therefore take ten hundred million (aka 1,000 million, aka a BILLION) singles to cover it.

Let's stick to 10 (TEN) square km needing a BILLION bills for now:

Iraq is 438,317 square km.

To cover it would therefore take 43, 831 BILLION dollar bills

That's also known as 43.831 TRILLION bills.

(Remember that 3% we rounded up a while ago? Let's take it off now to bring the 43.831 BILLION down to 42.5)

So to cover Iraq in dollar bills would take 42.5 TRILLION of them

At $4.25 Trillion spent, you could cover 1/10 of the country in dollar bills.

E.

Who would best represent you, as our Senator from Texas?

This one?



Or this one?

The real effect of gay marriage

popping corn and popping bubbles

This morning, I went for a walk around the huge KBR complex up the street. I intended to listen to a Bill Moyers podcast (which takes about 45 minutes) and to get some idea of what the heck USED to be on that huge yard. As I was walking along through the mounting waves of heat and temperature, I noticed that I could hardly hear out of my left ear, but could hear great out of my right.

The first thought was that perhaps my headphones were busted. After all, these mini-cables are very tender to internal breakage and shorting. That thought lasted a nano-second, and then I started to reflect that I hold my Treo 700 (tm) to that ear. I put my Bluetooth (tm) headset in that ear. Was I suffering damage to that ear from the constant irridation of that part of my head?

I come home, and my friend Ben has sent me an article. Ben's always got something interesting to share, so I went to it right away.

Uh, scary. Seriously scary. Fortunately, it's not TRUE. But, it makes you wonder.



While we're on the subject of scary, how about this new fangled definition of two words not previously associated?

hot stain n. Because there are what scientists call “hot stains‘“…the parts of the Earth now running out of potable water. Hot stains include northern China, large areas of Asia and Africa, the Middle East, Australia, the U.S. Midwest and sections of South America and Mexico. —“Protecting water vital to America” by Marylou Healy APP.com (Asbury Park, New Jersey) June 16, 2008.

Over on Hullabaloo yesterday, Tristero wrote something that I'll never forget about the Supreme Court's decision released last week about Guantanamo...

As much as I would like to believe the Bush revolution has failed, I really don't think a 5-4 decision restoring the Magna Carta counts as evidence, or any of the other victories for America that occurred with the same or similar margins.

Lastly, here's a terrific article from Harper's magazine about the law and order herd mentality that will cause those who have an open spot in their thinking to revisit the idea that more police, more prisons and harsher punishment is the answer.

It was written in 1929. It could have been written today.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

If Obama had done this, or Kerry, or Gore, or Clinton .. what would have happened?

Finally Fabulair

We're coming back!

I wish I'd thought of it

Digby (who's the blogosphere's equivalent of William Shirer or Edward R. Murrow) has this to say today, and damn, if she can't just spell it out before the dots start connecting up in my noggin:

Bill Clinton is in the pantheon of popular ex-presidents who continues to do important work on global initiatives. Hillary Clinton is a Senator and historic breakthrough presidential candidate who won more primary votes than any candidate in history aside from Barack Obama. Al Gore is a global leader and Nobel prize winner. On the other side of that epic battle, Newt Gingrich is a Fox News commentator, writing reviews of mystery thrillers on Amazon. Tom Delay is a private citizen facing indictment. Half of the social conservatives who unctuously criticized Clinton's behavior have been run out of town on morals charges. Fox News is sinking in the ratings faster than George W. Bush.

Well, now that you mention it...

Isn't it rather appropriate that the biggest blowhards of the last thirty years (save for and except Phil Gramm) are now gasbags for pay? All that effort, all that power and the BEST that they can do is to bloviate on Fox News?

From last night's speech by McCain:

You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false.

So, who is it that's trying to get Americans to believe something they know is false?

Oh, the Republicans.

Here's something that's REALLY funny - in the Montana Republican primary, an 85 year old guy who's been running for public office (and has lost EVERY time - 15 contests) since 1964 crushed the other five Republican primary contestants, who were well funded.

Could it be that the Republican brand is in far deeper trouble than people are willing to let on?

last minute reading list

A few articles I happened upon yesterday that you could look at:

A discussion of how California marriages must, could and might be treated by other states, including a discussion of just how awful DOMA really is can be found here.

A look at the dissimilarities of the Clintonistas who claim they'll vote for McCain if she's not the candidate and previous "Democrats" who broke for another candidate, and a more better rant than the one I posted two days ago.

A review of just who's ahead in the popular vote, using Clinton's math and common sense.

Finally, a truly outstanding rant and evaluation of what an apology is, and what it isn't. Bookmark this one for later.

This weekend's reading assignment(s)

Every once in a while, I make you go to work. Just as a little carrot, I'll give you two gimmes to induce you to read up.

First, here's a terrific website that aggregates online shopping discount and coupon codes for a few hundred significant merchants. As in, your junk mail nailed the email, but you still get to save the bucks. Check it out.

Second, another handy little online tool that allows you to zip through and just print the store coupons you're actually needing. Mommy saves big!

Okay, down to business. Get out your little Walgreen's reading glasses, and your big glass of water, and dig in.

First, I'm going to have you read a terrific article in Rolling Stone about how the United States Senate should be fired. All of 'em. They're only interested in giving away the dough to those who give the biggest checks.

Don't believe a word they tell you. And, don't write your Senator, unless you're writing a check.

Mother Jones has been raising hell again, and describing for you how a former Economics professor from Texas A&M wrecked out financial system nearly single handedly, and then is now advising John McCain on how to make it even BETTER. Forget Punxsutawney Phil, this is Phorclosure Phil!

Okay, you'll need some musical support for this next one - cue up the old favorite "Proud to be an American" while you read this one. A Brit, who spent years in Africa providing charity medical services to dirt poor Africans now does more than 60% of his work here in the USofA. Where we have the "best medical system in the world."

Uh-huh. E recently traveled from YVR to SFO, London and Paris. He bought supplemental insurance to cover his medical risk during his trip. They asked him if he was spending more than 48 hours in the US, because if he was, they'd have to charge him more than double.

That's more than double the amount for medical care risk than he'd have had to pay to visit, say, one of the former Soviet stans over near the Black Sea. Yeah.

Is that song over yet?

Finally, a bit of hope that's very cool. A researcher has concluded that a single, universal vaccine for the influenza virus is possible. This could lead to a wide range of viral vaccines, and a reduction of influenza death. Whoo hoo!

Other stuff you'll have to contend with - I'm reading "The Disappearance of the Universe," and it's hot stuff. Also, I'm reading this article from Scientific American that investigates whether time moves forward and/or backward in other realms. My brain blew up earlier when I started it, so I'll report more later.

Trying to drag you kicking and screaming into integrated knowledge...

I had her son in my living room two weeks ago

I'm sorry, but if you're going to choose McCain over Obama because you're angry HRC didn't win the nomination, then you deserve everything you get out of it. No complaining from you between 2009 and 2013...

Sometimes what makes sense doesn't make sense

From Motive Magazine, who snared it from Consumer Reports:

After digesting the permanence of $4 gasoline, many consumers are jumping ship to smaller, lighter cars that get better sticker mileage — just you try to find a Honda Fit on a dealer lot and let us know how that works out for you. But Consumer Reports, wet blanket of reason that they are, has recently put out a report finding that jumping ship without factoring all the costs can end up putting a bigger dent in the piggy than buyers will ever save on gas.

To wit, CR figured that depreciation makes up nearly half of what owners pay out during a car's first five years. But gas costs are only 21 percent. So by trading out of a car halfway through the note, consumers are shafting themselves by taking on even greater depreciation with a new car.

Like having your hopes and dreams shattered further? The douche of cold water continues after the jump.

YONKERS, NY - With national average fuel prices approaching $4 a gallon, many consumers are clamoring to trade in their current vehicles for smaller, more fuel-efficient ones. But a new study from Consumer Reports warns drivers that downsizing too soon can cost them more in other owner costs than they'll save at the pump.

Consumer Reports has always encouraged drivers to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. But if the timing isn't right, it can cost you more in the long run. An analysis of CR's exclusive owner-cost data found that it often doesn't pay to downsize if you've only owned your vehicle for three years or less and haven't paid off the loan, even if the new car's fuel economy is much better. Consumer Reports' experts say consumers should typically hold on to their cars at least four or five years to minimize the financial impact of depreciation and finance charges. Owner cost data include depreciation, fuel usage, interest on financing, insurance, maintenance and repair, and sales tax. A complete analysis and sample trade-in comparisons is available free at www.ConsumerReports.org

According to Consumer Reports' calculations, depreciation makes up about 48 percent of an average owner's total vehicle costs in the first five years of ownership. Fuel, however, averages only about 21 percent of total costs. Because the greatest depreciation occurs in the first three years, your car costs you less to own overall in the following years. So for a typical, payment-making owner with a 60-month loan, trading in a three-year-old vehicle means you've just taken the biggest depreciation hit on your current car and still have a lot of the loan principle yet to pay off. What you'll save in depreciation costs by holding onto the vehicle for another year or two will net you more money in the long run than you'd save in gasoline with the new car.

"These hidden costs may be the factors you are least likely to focus on when downsizing," said Rik Paul, automotive editor, Consumer Reports. "After all, depreciation and interest are less tangible costs than the high price for a gallon of gas that slaps drivers in the face with each fill up."

For example, a 2005 Ford Five Hundred SEL V6 sedan got 21 mpg overall in Consumer Reports' testing. The 2008 Toyota Prius got 44. Assuming 12,000 miles per year at the current national average for gasoline of $3.75 per gallon, the Ford will cost about $2,000 in gas this year, while the Toyota will cost just $1,000. But factoring in all of the owner costs of trading in the Five Hundred now, the Toyota will cost about $9,000 to own for the first 12 months, while the Ford costs $6,000. That's a difference of $3,000, or $0.23 per mile.

"Based on today's numbers, it's less expensive to tough out another year or two with a gas guzzler than trade-in too early," Paul said. "However, if gas prices rise past $5 a gallon, large vehicles may see their depreciation accelerate and owners could face new challenges in selling their old model."

Consumer Reports continues to advise shoppers to buy the highest-rated, most reliable, and safest model with good fuel economy that suits their needs. When it comes time to buy a new model, there are considerable savings and advantages to downsizing, but consumers should understand the full financial impact of the timing for their decision.

Jeff Bartlett, deputy automotive editor, ConsumerReports.org, adds, "While we support the downsizing trend in principle, we caution consumers to look at their long-term owner costs and not rush to make a change they may later regret."

ConsumerReports.org has recently launched a "Guide to Driving Green" special section (ConsumerReports.org/fuel) with tips on how to improve fuel economy; lists of models with the best fuel economy; guides to the latest hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles; and powerful tools for searching Consumer Reports' ratings.

Online subscribers can compare costs for one, three, five, and eight years of ownership from the detailed model pages.

With more than 7,000,000 print and online subscribers, Consumer Reports is one of the most trusted sources for information and advice on consumer products and services. It conducts the most comprehensive auto-test program of any U.S. publication or Website; the magazine's auto experts have decades of experience in driving, testing, and reporting on cars. To become a subscriber, consumers can call 1-800-234-1645. Information and articles from the magazine can be accessed online at www.ConsumerReports.org.

My Review of FreeStyle Test Strips

Originally submitted at AllegroMedical.com

FreeStyle Test Strips - TheraSense FreeStyle Test Strips Stock up on FreeStyle Flash Diabetic Test Strips to test blood glucose levels with the FreeStyle Blood Glucose Monitoring System. The easy-to-use FreeStyle Test Strips allow people with diabetes to take a blood sample from multiple sites inc...

FreeStyle Test Strips

One out of five ain't bad

By drdivo from Houston, Texas on 5/30/2008

 

2out of 5

Pros: Comes in a yellow box, Has numbers on the label

Cons: Don't buy at full price, Poor web resources, Terrible quality control

Best Uses: Daily Use

Describe Yourself: Type II

I've been using this BG measuring system for about six years. Over the last two plus years, each box of test strips that I've received has had about 1/6th of the contents not work. Meaning, you do everything the right way, and the strip picks up the blood sample, and nothing happens until the device tells you that there is an error. Then, you re-stick yourself, use a new test strip, doing everything the same way and -- results.

NEVER buy these full price. Always look for a sale, and never buy them after their posted expiration date. When you buy 100, only 82 or so will work. Count that into your math.

(legalese)

Better get busy

So, last night, I actually did one of the things that I intended to do yesterday - and would have done during the day had I not spent most of my day being irritated that someone had stolen the big marble ball out of my trackball at the office.

Whimsy

This evening, I made a couple of mad dashes outside. Once, I realized I hadn't yet taken the COH garbage can out to the curb, so .. whoooooosh! I manhandled the can past the shrubs and off of the loose rock upon which it sits, and lumbered it out to the curb. I was #7 tonight. I need to get some numbers for it, or some paint or something, so I can mark it as my own.

Later, Jackie arose from her deep slumber on my bedroom floor to announce it was time for her evening constitutional. We headed down the steep stairs, and went around the back side of the patio homes. As we went southeast, the huge KBR complex across the street, it was apparent that the rain bands Guy had been speaking of were about to spill their drops on our neighborhood. The wind had kicked up a bit, and I was delighted with a plastic bag - so familiar to us, this one from a Chinese restaurant, just from the gauge of the plastic and the design printed on the side - floated in a whimsical cyclone of its very own. Around, and up, and back, and around and down it went.

As I approached it, my presence disturbed the delicate balance of air currents, and the bag began to move in lurching, distressed patterns. It finally started trying to jerk away from my outstretched hand but I caught it, ending the demonstration of the wisps of disturbed air.

It, and the Dr. Pepper bottle I had picked up earlier, went into the neighbor's trash can. They were going to be #8, it seems.

This guy rocks - Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday

Just to remind you, I pay $5/month so that this guy has a job and can continue to write this stuff every day. Today, he brought a moment of aliveness to my otherwise crappy morning.

By Bill in Portland Maine
on Cheers and Jeers

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Hurricane season starts in five days. If the Grand Committee of Meterological Poobahs hasn’t come up with their list of names yet, may I suggest the following as a way of commemorating the greatest hits of the Bush administration in this, its final year:

Ashcroft
Brownie
Condi
Dick
Enron
Feith
Gonzales
Hughes
Iraq
Jack Abramoff
KBR
Lieberman
Matalin
Negroponte
Osama
Perle
Quagmire
Rummy
Scooter
Turdblossom
Uranium from Africa
Viceroy Bremer
Wolfowitz
Xenophobe
Yoo
Zell

On second thought, that would really be unfair. To the hurricanes.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Once you have an idea of what you're looking for..

A few weeks back, one of my clients was asking me a question about an acronym used by the State of Colorado in mortgage training. Today, I cracked the code. That's a big "atta boy" in my corner.

I've worked up some financial calculations for a house in rental service - what's the tax benefit after expenses - it worked out much better than I would have otherwise guessed.

This afternoon, it's all about getting the den in full order, such that I can have guests over on Sunday. It's so easy to just clooooooooose the door and ignore everything in there, but that is not what I'm committed to. I'm also hanging the hanging baskets this afternoon, and weeding the pool area.

My rubber trees keep tumping over, and it's as annoying as it can be. Sheesh! I'm going to have to figure out a way to intervene there.

Just a few more things to work on this afternoon, and then it's home to create some more structure and peace.

Some really outrageous thoughts

This video is awesome (in my mind...)



How about some discussion that lowering interest rates and preventing foreclosures from taking place is not the way out?

And, how about an article discussing how the Republican brand got to be so very popular, and how it's struggling today?

Piano-free environment

After twelve years of moving its bulk, paying movers to move its bulk and dusting, I've finally sold my piano. It came to live with me during the election returns of 1996, and has occupied a significant chunk of real estate ever since.

In February, the offer to purchase was made and I endured many days of deep remorse and sadness contemplating it. After moving it again just a few weeks ago, I began to wonder just WHAT I was thinking and got over myself.

So, I emailed the fellow who offered to buy it back in February, and he was still interested. His movers just picked it up a few minutes ago. It's gone. I don't miss it, although I now have a bunch of sheet and book music that is basically worthless (and has been so for a long time, since it's never been used the entire time I've had it.)

Coming soon to an eBay clearance table near you:

Phaeton Phanatic collection
Marvin the Martian collection
Sheet music galore
Book music
Other geegaws

Keith Olbermann was on FIRE last night

Part two

Wow...

Speakers!

Trevor has been over here, and has trouble-shot the installed speakers in the ceiling in both of the living room and the master, which is far more progress than I was thinking. It's starting to come together - tomorrow will require a lot more substantive progress.

The music sounds awesome through the ceiling speakers - I'm actually listening to music at home again, which hasn't happened in years.

YAY Trevor!

About Jeremiah Wright

You know I keep finding things that I couldn't say better myself - here's another one:

From today's Dues Ex Malcontent

I'll make this quick and to the point.

If the American voters really are willing to take into consideration, even for a moment, Barack Obama's association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright when deciding whether or not to vote for him, then we get what we deserve in November.

The conflict-addicted mass media has been going ape-shit over the past several weeks, robotically parroting Hillary Clinton's talking points and keeping on life support a non-issue that's always been the kind of thing only the most simple-minded and sheltered among us would concern him or herself with. Now, in a ballsy tip of the hat to their own fuck-you-all might, TV and print news organizations are touting the Wright "scandal" as reason for Camp Clinton's recent bump in the polls. The whole ridiculous mess has forced Obama -- who had been taking the highest of roads by not throwing Wright under the bus -- to play by the asinine game that so many voters purport to loathe and actually address this nonsense. This of course adds yet another surreal layer to the story, by allowing the media vultures to breathlessly claim that the "normally cool Obama is on the defensive" against a tempest that they themselves created.

The Jeremiah Wright "issue" isn't one. In the famous words of Gertrude Stein -- there's no there there. Yet I don't doubt that there are quite a few voters across this land of ours who aren't convinced -- who find themselves scratching their heads and saying musically and suspiciously, "Well, I don't knooow."

And it's exactly this kind of thinking that gave us eight years of George Bush.

If you're really stupid enough to worry about bullshit this inconsequential, particularly with everything else that's going on in the world right now -- with all that's at stake -- please do this country a favor and stay the hell home on election day. You shouldn't be entrusted with the power of a vote.

What cost indeed?

Trip to Colorado

show and tell

show and tell

A partial list of Texas cities and towns that I've seen in the last week:

Lubbock
Waco
Crawford
Abilene
Amarillo
Dumas
Texline
Dalhart
Wichita Falls
Fort Worth
Acme
Waxahachie

Things I've seen that I never otherwise would have seen:

Unit trains on the BNSF traveling faster than we could drive
Mass production cattle farms
Wind generator turbines as far as the eye can see
An entire world of coordinated flashing red lamps atop the wind turbines
Winching a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee out of 25" of snow on a gravel road
Deer poop
Pine tree killed by pine beetles
Pine tree infested by pine beetles

Things I've done that I never otherwise would have done:

Turned off my cell phone for three days
Winched and driven a 4x4 out of 25" of snow
Off-roaded
Walked around on a mountain

The more I see, the more I like

Why do we continue to validate HRC?

Are we that desperate for a veneer of inclusion that we pony up millions to an organization that doesn't represent us in any meaningful way?

As far as their lobbying effort goes, it's beyond parody or joke. It's pathetic. Their public face amplifies the perfidy and prevarication that we've come to expect in society to levels of ridiculousness that even a right-wing radio host would find embarrassing.

Thinking that after a ten year hiatus, I could fight from within more effectively than without, I re-joined HRC in November 2007, but have never received any acknowledgment of my application nor fee payment. Repeated inquiries have produced nothing.

Nothing is what HRC brings the gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual communities. They are a glitzier, drug-free version of an endless circuit party - sucking up $41,000,000 in 2007, and paying out a whopping $8,902,000 in lobbying and advocacy.

Don't be fooled by their "program services" items of "Public policy & training," or "member education and mobilization."

Those items are self-promotion and fund-raising. Big parties, fees to celebrities who can feel good about supporting "gay rights," and magazine advertisements that have a hint of civil rights and lots of requests for more money.

I assert that we would all of us be better off ceasing to validate HRC in the blogosphere, by ending our support of their parties and dinners, and ceasing to sport their bumper stickers. They clearly are NOT in favor of equal rights; they're interested in SAYING that is their mission while raising as much money for self-aggrandizement as possible.

Awesome new BMW ad

This is terrific. Ever wonder what goes on inside of a piston in your car? Now you will know:




Created by OnePlusYou

A Martin Luther King wrap-up

So, it was the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's death in 1968. A number of articles about Dr. King, his mission and where we are now with respect to that mission are here:

A Los Angeles Times article about Dr. King's anger over economic inequality.

Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America's ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

Following right after that, a current Christian Science Monitor article about how the tax code can be sensibly used to promote economic equality without punishing or forfeiture.

And here is a letter that Dr. King wrote while he was in the Birmingham city jail. This shows us what a national leader was like forty years ago versus today.

We're overall losers in this situation.

Bush Vows To Make It Up To Country Somehow

From this morning's Onion

WASHINGTON—Amid allegations that his thoughtless and insensitive decisions have damaged his relationship with the nation, President George W. Bush vowed Monday that he would, starting now, "make everything better."

"This time I'm serious," Bush said. "I am ready to make a fresh start if we can just put the past behind us. I promise."
Enlarge Image Bush

Bush swears that this time he's really going to pay attention to all 280 million U.S. citizens, and try to do right by them for once.

An estimated 35 million citizens listened to the president's televised remarks while silently crying behind locked bathroom doors.

Though Bush told all Americans they owed it to him to give him one more chance, he admitted that there was no excuse for his mishandling of national affairs.

"Things have just been so crazy at work lately," he said.

During the 14-minute address Bush acknowledged that he and the country had drifted apart. He accepted some of the blame, but stressed that it was partly the American people's fault, and went on to chide them for not giving him an opportunity to explain, not standing behind him, and failing to understand his "very real" need for unchecked executive authority.

"My job is stressful," Bush said. "Trust me, things will calm down in a few months once I don't have to deal with it anymore."
George Bush Slideshow

George W. Bush

The president, whose approval ratings have dropped steadily in recent years, said he had no idea how bad things had gotten until he found out that an overwhelming percentage of Americans didn't even bother responding to an opinion poll this month about his recent $3.1 trillion budget proposal.

Bush has since taken steps towards reconciliation with the American people, including promoting a promise to help alleviate the fiscal woes the U.S. has faced in recent months. Bush said he knew that the $300 he intended to give to every citizen "couldn't possibly make up for how [he has] governed," but nevertheless asked the nation to have faith in him.

"I know it's not much, but it's a start, right?" Bush said. "And it hasn't always been bad. Doesn't this remind you of that other $300 rebate I gave you in 2003? You always forget all the times I'm a really great president. We have really had some wonderful moments."

"Cut me some slack here, for Christ's sake," Bush continued. "I'm trying. I really am."

In addition to providing economic relief, Bush said he has taken other measures to strengthen his bond with the nation. According to the president, his newly proposed warrantless-wiretapping bill will greatly broaden the reach of his personal attention to the American people's needs and put him in a position to be more directly involved in their lives.

The president concluded by imploring the nation to help him rectify the situation, stressing that he always has America's best interests at heart but cannot be expected to improve things all by himself.

"You have to realize that everything I do, I do for you," Bush said. "Do you think I like denying health care to underprivileged children, or plunging the country deeper and deeper into debt? Well, I don't, and I hope someday you'll understand that. In the meantime, I'm asking the American people to try to meet me halfway on this."

Despite Bush's seemingly conciliatory stance, public response to Bush's promises has been frosty at best. Cato Institute policy scholar Brian Whitaker echoed the sentiments of many Americans, calling Bush's recent overtures "too little, too late."

"We want to believe that he's finally going to be the president we always wanted, but we've given him so many chances," Whitaker said. "I don't think we can handle another disappointment. Maybe it's time to realize that President Bush will never be the head of state we need him to be."

"Then again, maybe our expectations are unfair," Whitaker added. "He seemed so sincere this time. He wouldn't abuse his executive powers if he didn't care about us, right?"

Whitaker predicted that the nation will likely move forward and try to forget Bush, though it may be difficult for Americans to ever trust a president again. He said the current crop of presidential contenders offers little in the way of an alternative to Bush, but maintained that "at least Barack Obama listens to us."

April Fool!

Very snarky

I still like the Red Rocket, though.

Both hilarious!

Which appeals to you?

Hm. Jobs, economic support for "the people, by the people, of the people," and cutting back on corporate welfare... versus



Safe from whom? Churchill's speech about defending the beaches? Since when has that been a problem? If we're all living in tents, our military destroyed, our national treasury empty, couldn't they just .. buy tickets on airlines and come in and buy us out? Why invade?

Nabbed from Daily Kos

Are YOU in favor of W's third term?

Thanks to Daily Kos' and their very creative readers/contributors for this big smile this morning.